a sense of history, a sense.........

It is said that to be an activist and socialist we need a sense of history, a sense of proportion and a sense of humor. I was thinking of this the other day. I live in Chicago. It has a great history of struggle. The labor uprising of 1886 for example. The city's bosses murdered the leaders of this movement for the shorter working day. Not only did they murder them but they would not allow their bodies to be buried in the city limits. When my friends visit we have to drive outside the city limits to visit their graves. Then there were the great struggles to organize the stockyards and the steel industry. Again workers were killed by the bosses as they tried to stop the workers organizing. And there was the black revolt of the 1960's when the cops murdered Fred Hampton the leader of the Black Panthers. These events are part of the history and fighting tradition of the Chicago working class movement. As are the links and support of the the Chicago Federation of Labor with the Russian revolution of 1917.

The Chicago Federation of Labor still exists. It has up to one million union members affiliated. There are locals in all the major workforces of the city with delegates sitting on this body. This organization has the potential to organize and mobilize the working class of Chicago. Instead it holds hands with the Democratic Party machine of Daley and keeps the working class of the city paralyzed. But going back to the need for a sense of history.

Practically nobody I meet knows of the existence of the Chicago Federation of Labor. And even less know of the history of that body and of the Chicago working class. This enormously weakens the city's working class. When they consider their situation, when they consider their options, when they consider whether to fight or to to go along then their own history of struggle is not something that they are aware off and consider as realistic. The working class in Chicago and throughout the US has a very weak sense of history. This weakens them in their struggles. The reason for this weakness is the lack of a mass working peoples party and the refusal of the union leaders to lead in building one and to lead in helping their members and workers in general gain access to their own history.

For the new movement that is developing it is our responsibility to bring the knowledge of our own history back into this movement. This is one of our most important tasks. It is essential if we are to help develop a fighting conscious working class.

I will try to get to the sense of proportion and sense of humor later.

Sean.